The morning after the night before, Sky News was boasting that it would be "coming live from Old Trafford to keep you up to date with all the action as it unfolds". While not quite on the same scale as demanding the Prime Minister apologise for the slave trade, there was a sense that such reporting may have been a little tardy. Twelve hours after the event, the visiting Roma supporters had all flown home, the middle-aged English blokes in black ski jackets had stopped running around shouting, all we could see were a couple of bleary-eyed Irishmen emerging with carrier bags from the Manchester United megastore. Even Sky's reporter, Ian Dovaston, sounded a little apologetic about the implication from the studio that he was delivering a dispatch from the front line of a re-enactment of the Battle of Monte Casino.

"It would be wrong to say that we saw anything like last week," said Dovaston. "And it would be right to say that Greater Manchester Police dealt swiftly with any tension."

Nonetheless, Sky News had decided that what happened before United's Champions League quarter-final with Roma was significant enough to lead its bulletins all day. Thus, as Dovaston stood in lonely vigil outside the ground, the pictures of the previous evening's scuffles were replayed for approximately the 323rd time. So often had they been shown, we could tick them off on our mental register: the fat bloke being wrestled to the floor by half a dozen cops, the hooligan with a scarf covering his face taking a swipe at the camera, the woman with a twisted ankle being helped from the scene. Compared to what had gone on in Rome the previous week, this was thin televisual gruel.

What Sky News was engaging in here was as fine an example of news creation as you will see. Despite the fact that the principal participant and instigator of the previous bout - the Rome police - would, by definition, be absent, Sky's management had decided that Old Trafford was to play host to a rematch of the big fight. They had stationed cameras outside the ground which caught a couple of moments of ugliness. These were then replayed interminably, generally accompanied by a caption stating 'Manchester United could face disciplinary action after trouble flared at last night's Champions League game'. There was no indication as to who was suggesting such a thing might happen, or, given that the incidents were as nothing compared to the nastiness of Rome, why.

What seemed even more singular about Sky's news judgment was that the really significant story unfolded on Tuesday night behind the walls immediately over Dovaston's shoulder. United's 7-1 demolition of Roma, coupled with Chelsea's character-full win in Valencia, brings the tantalising prospect of two teams facing each other at the last to decide the outcome of the Treble. United and Chelsea are edging ever closer to meeting in two cup finals, with a Premiership showdown as an appetiser. One fortnight in May could turn out to contain the biggest football news of the decade. Though Sky News will probably report it by replaying shots of the hooligan in the scarf assaulting the camera.

By contrast, if you want to know how a sports event should be handled, then ITV's coverage of the University Boat Race was a model. Admirably relaxed presentation from Mark Durden-Smith, elegant commentary from Peter Drury and an informative panel of former participants notwithstanding, the real joy of the afternoon lay in several short preview films. Gabriel Clarke's piece about the 20th anniversary of the Oxford mutiny was a particular delight.

Unlike the BBC before it, what ITV's team have recognised is that while there may be some watching for whom stroke ratio is a turn-on, for most of the television audience there is precious little interest in the relative strengths of the two crews' stern units. Rather, the producers recognise that the race's universal fascination lies in the extraordinary gap it throws up between winning and losing. In particular, few could wish on the losers the ultimate indignity Oxford faced this year. It is not the most flattering of athletic attire at the best of times, but when trudging disconsolately up to the presentation podium to accept the pointless handshake of second place, being obliged to wear an unholy combination of circulation-arresting shorts and Wellington boots just adds to the humiliation. Surely Messrs Adidas or Nike could dream up something more dignified.